Films should be visceral experience, irrespective of genre: Director ChandrajithTo

NT Correspondent Bengaluru: When ‘Ibbani Tabbida Ileyali (ITI)' was released on September 5, it met with push back from some critics who felt that perhaps Rakshit Shetty – the producer – let director Chandrajith Belliappa indulge too much in his idiosyncrasies. To be fair to them, the film is perched precariously on a string of wispy verses and hipster-ish dreams. A tony restaurant that could sell its signature dishes for Rs 20 is one among the many progressive ideas floated by Belliappa in his film. But perhaps the confidence with which he anchors these alternative viewpoints – despite this being his first full-length feature film – made it possible for the film to be steered into a more popular zone.

“Qualities I have within and qualities I believe in probably did seep into the film subconsciously, but there was no push to preach,” insisted Belliappa. Incidentally, Belliappa debuted as director with one of the seven anthologies in ‘Katha Sangama' in 2019, made as a tribute to filmmaker Puttana Kanagal and produced by another giant of the Kannada film industry, Rishab Shetty. Belliapa admits that he did wear his heart on his sleeve for ‘ITI'.“Since it is a love story, some specific qualities that I may be looking for in the partner that I want to spend my life with may have coloured the girl's character. The way I want to treat her defined the character of the male lead,” Belliappa told PTI.

Wispy or not, more than a month later, when most Kannada films wrap up after one week in theatres, ‘ITI' is still going strong, proving critics wrong. It also proved that the magic of propping up everyday emotions at a larger-than-life scale, thus transporting us to a world far away from our mundane worries, still mesmerises people.